After making my curtains from toile, I didn't want to overwhelm the room with it. So I decided on a variety of white and black pillows. But everything at the fabric store was too bright to match my particular toile. So I tea stained a bunch of white and black patterns to make them match.

The Nester is my decorating hero. Seriously. You don't even want to know what my house looked like before I found her blog. Now my friends don't even believe that I used to have trouble decorating. *scoff*. So the Nester is having a fall mantle link up party, and I couldn't refuse the invitation :-) You can also find a fall decor linky party over at Hooked on Houses.

Lots of glitter. I glittered the edges of the roses myself with clear glitter. All the white ones, and 3 of the black ones. I love the addition of the one red rose- it brings so much interest to the arrangement! Actually lighting my candles? Another trick I learned from the Nester. The sparkly gourds on the candle stick holders also made me happy. The tall ones needed a little piece of double sticky tape and they were good to stay.The little glittery head things used to be my mom's. Don't know where they came from, but you could totally paper mache your own.

I LOVE my ladder above the mantle. We found it in the cellar of the farm house when we moved in. My husband thought he was going to actually use it as a ladder. Silly hubby ;-)

I was at a yard sale when I looked across the way and saw a giant pile of toile. I had been wanting some forever to make curtains with, but... it's like 14/yard at my fabric store! So I had a really hard time keeping my cook when I asked with a casual face "How much for this fabric", you know, trying to act like I didn't even know what toile was. When she said $5, I just couldn't hand her the money fast enough. Yee haw!!!

Yep. All of this for FIVE BUCKS!

I sewed the curtains and pillows myself. All of the pillows are backed in toil because I have so much of it. Did you catch the toile lamp shade? Ya, I thought you'd like that :-)

Even though my front door is purple (and not red) I've decided to decorate my porch with a patriotic theme. So not "4th of July" decor, but actually American themed year round. I've been seeing some really cool projects that I'll be doing later. When it's not the 4th of July anymore. And none of you will care. Lol!

My farmhouse porch was missing something vital- a porch swing! I wanted one all Summer last year, and even found one at a yard sale... but they were asking $40, and it had chipping paint and rusted chains. So I didn't get it, but I haven't ever found a better deal on a used porch swing since then. So I started looking for a new porch swing. Sooooo un-me. We buy all of our furniture used. But the cheapest I could find was $150 and it was... well... cheap.

So my awesome husband volunteered to build me a porch swing with his own 2 hands! Very "farmhouse" of him ;-) He found some directions here, and got to work.

(Que hammer and saw audio effects)

My antique auditorium bench became a workbench.

And the porch swing started to take shape!

He built it just like they did in the good 'ol days!

Well... like the good 'ol days, but with a laptop and power tools ;-)

Yay! It's so exciting to watch something come together like this!

We got a can of "oops" stain from Home Depot for $5.

I LOVE oops paint- so affordable! I guess whoever returned

it wasn't satisfied with the color, but I like it!

My adorable daughter, just-a-swingin'!

Perhaps the trickiest part was hanging it by the ropes, but we are enjoying it soooo much! I think it would be easier to hang from chain, but I was insistent on the rope because it's cute, and it's silent :-)

The porch swing cost us a little less than $100 for the wood, stain, rope, and miscellaneous supplies. We even had to buy sandpaper. This was $50 cheaper than the cheapest porch swing I found, and it's waaaay nicer!

Find the plans to make this porch swing yourself here! If you are going to attempt to build this swing, know this- it doesn't say that you need a middle support for the seat, but you do. The boards are just too long to support an adult person very well without it. Other than that, the plans were fine!

Please- make a porch swing a priority for your porch this Summer! You won't regret it! :-)